Am trying to get my head round this mixed year group thing.

[carla]

And I'm mightily hacked off by it. She's Y1 (in fact 6 of them are) in a Y2 class.

Already she stays behind when the rest go swimming, is missing out on the three day summer trip, but am I right in thinking they'll have to move her again before her primary school career's out? Otherewise, won't she be ten instead of eleven when she moves on to secondary school? And isn't that impossible?

Anyone? Shameless bump.

Round with us they don't put them up to secondary early. She will spend a year being one of the 'older kids' in the class i expect. I would imagine that she would go and do the year 3 trip when she is in year 3 IYSWIM

Have you been told yet whether she'll be staying with the same children next year? I know that at ds1's school children can be in a mixed class one year and then with just their own year group the next.

Our local primary does it a rather odd way. They spend a year in class X as the youngest, and then stay in class X the next year as the oldest. Sounds crazy to me and the kids can get very bored

AFAIK she'll go up to secondary once she's completed Y6, same as all the other children. But it means that at some point she'll stay in the same class for 2 years. So for example, she might stay where she is next year, and be a Y2 in the mixed Y1/2 class, or maybe she'll continue up with her current class and be Y2 in a mixed Y2/3 class.

You need to ask the school how they organise this (it usually depends on the numbers in each year group). It shouldn't mean that she repeats any work, as schools with mixed age classes should have a 2 year 'rolling programme' for the curriculum, meaning the topics are different for each term over a 2 year period, with the work in each class being matched to both age groups. Hope this makes sense.....it can be v complicated!

CT, no, they haven't told us anything. How would that work, though, if they haven't enough Y1's to make up a whole class? It's money, money, money, as far as I can see, for the school. Banging them in every which way. To the detriment of our children.

God, I wish I could afford to have her privately educated. I really like the school, and dd1 has achieved a lot there, but I don't like this policy one bit.

i was moved up when i was in primary school, i missed y4 and went straight to y5. it was because the y5 class was small and our y4 one was huge. I followed the yr group into y6 and at the end of the year i was given the opportunity by the primary school to go into high school. in the end, after many meetings with the schools and my mum i decided to stay where i was and repeat a year. And thats exactly what i did, same work, same teacher(for a while),and i was very very bored.

I don't know if your situation is the same but thats what happened to me anyway. can u have a word with the school and see what they say? if it was my ds, i would want him with ppl his own age i think

Sometimes we have mixed classes, and sometimes not. It all depends on the numbers.

In KS1 you can only have upto 30 children in a class and so if you have more than 30, or 60 if it's a two form entry then you have to stick the children somewhere. It's usually a case of the brighter Y1's going into a year2 class, or the less able going into reception.

Unfortunately there's not a lot the school can do if the numbers don't work out exactly, although I can see your point completely.

our year one is split, by ability, between class 1 (reception and year 1) and class 2 (year 1 and year 2)

but they treat class 2 as one unit so they all go swimming together for example

Enid, that makes so much sense. I just feel dd2 is being isolated.

yes it sounds isolating and unecessarily complicated

Carla
Why don't you speak to the school about your concerns? Or maybe you have